As 2016 nears, so does completion for MILA, the bKL-designed 41-story apartment tower at 200 North Michigan Avenue. The 402-unit building is now almost fully enclosed with a curtain wall of blue glass, featuring thicker glazing which presents nice, crisp reflections rather than the wavy fun-house effect which can result from cheaper facades. The tower anchors the corner of Michigan Avenue and Lake Street, from which the project derives its name. Before construction began, workers demolished a six-story Art Deco building designed by Holabird & Root to make way for the new apartment tower.
The location positions the tower in a key spot along "The Cultural Mile," an evolving stretch of Michigan Avenue south of the bridge which has seen a number of new residential and hotel projects alongside Grant Park, Millennium Park and the Art Institute of Chicago, including the new Chicago Athletic Association Hotel to the south and the upcoming London House Hotel to the north of MILA.
The high-profile nature of the site forced a design feature which prevented the parking levels from being visible on the Michigan Avenue streetwall. As such, passerbys may have noticed the gap in the structure on the podium levels. This space will be filled in with an artistic light display, rather than the Times Square-esque signs that some early concept renderings had shown.
The apartments are a mix of studio through two bedroom units and are stacked into the same floor plan for all residential levels in the tower, which are sandwiched between amenities located on the podium roof and the uppermost 41st floor. The building is designed to achieve a LEED Silver rating and features heat pumps for climate control in each individual unit which tap into an efficient centralized chiller system on the roof. All apartments feature in-unit laundry and are hard wired high-speed internet featuring CAT-5 network connections.
As these photos show, despite the project's location in a dense urban setting with close neighbors, tenants will have great views of architectural details displayed in a verity of styles, no matter which floor they reside on.
— Shawn Ursini
·MILA [Official website]
·MILA Tower Unveils Floor Plans, Amenities and New Renderings [Curbed Chicago]
·Nine Month Time Lapse Reveals Progress on 200 N Michigan [Curbed Chicago]
·All previous MILA coverage [Curbed Chicago]
·Cultural Mile Association [Official website]
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